Gear that comes from non-photography sources

[Mark Sawyer]

Beer. And Scotch. Also Bourbon, Martinis too. A nice red wine doesn't hurt. And memories. Inspiration is important...

[John Layton]

Created a semi-rigid, wind-proof dark cloth from two layers (face to face) of duct tape while testing my L-45A on the summit of Mt. Washington during December of 2004.

[Laminarman]

STI Guardian 1911 pistol in 9mm. Few years ago shot a coyote at 15' who wouldn't back off when I was taking photos on my property. He was mangy and mean, and probably rabid and while not foaming at the mouth was very atypical behavior. Reported it to NY DEC they said, "Probably was rabid but we're not going to take the body unless you were bit." Seriously if I do hike into remote areas with a camera, alone, I do carry. You asked, you received : )

[Greg]

Beer. And Scotch. Also Bourbon, Martinis too. A nice red wine doesn't hurt. And memories. Inspiration is important...

Think that W Eugene Smith once said that sipping Bourbon was an essential accessory to be had in the darkroom.

[Tin Can]

At least $100 cash whenever you leave the cave

[Bill Burk]

Diapers are more versatile and absorbent, I keep a stack in my darkroom instead of towels. They are large enough to wrap lenses and other gear. I never keep paper towels in my DR diapers are prefered.

Interesting. I mop with terry squares, but I lose them in the wash so need to resupply . Maybe diapers are the way to go.

[MrFujicaman]

King size top sheets from Walmart for backgrounds for child photography. Just open the side seams on the top and they slide on the crossbar for the background stand.

[Drew Wiley]

Randy - I thought that in your part of the world cash was improvised as you go. That concept certainly worked for Bonnie and Clyde. But film was cheaper then too.

[MrFujicaman]

I've been wanting some gallon(AKA 4 liter) glass bottles for my photochemicals, but the cheapest I've found was $6 each for a box of six, plus $18 shipping. Saw a yard sale today and they had about 10 4 liter Sangria bottles for sale for $ 4 each, so I bought 3 of them. Not the brown glass, but they'll get the job done.

Thing is, I'm wondering how long it took to drink that much Sangria!

[neil poulsen]

When I built my darkroom back in the 90's, I treated myself to a chemical mixer. The base has a magnet that spins, and a plastic covered magnet "mixer" goes into the container with the water and powder developer, fixer, etc. As the magnet in the base spins, the spinning mixer mixes the chemistry.

After pouring the powder into the water, I return in an hour to find the chemistry completely dissolved.

The base also has a heater that helps the chemistry to dissolve.

I also purchased a 3M, full face mask for pouring the powder into the water. The mask has filters that protect me from inhaling the very fine powder and keep it from getting into my eyes.

A little more esoteric, when doing calibrations, the Systat Statistical software that's available free on-line (student version) has a "double-weighted least squares" plotting routine that's PERFECT for plotting the curves that show film density as a function of zones.